


With Love, From Matthew

by Argent_the_Gay



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Avatar: The Last Airbender References, I couldn't stop myself, I don't even know how to tag this, Keith is half chinese half korean, Matt and Pidge are second gen Italians, Matt has some issues, Matt pines for Shiro, Matt recalling memories before Kerberos, Other, Shiro is second gen Japanese, Star Wars References, Suicide mention, because why the fuck not, even while being angsty, he is really gay for shiro, how do u tag, legit, matt mocks the Millennial GenerationTM, murder mentioned, seriously, someone save me, there is angst in thi, this is complete ramblings, this is mostly shenanigans, this is the first thing I've actually managed to fucking finish, this probably takes place in like 2088 or smth, uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 14:04:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12819117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argent_the_Gay/pseuds/Argent_the_Gay
Summary: Matthew Holt writes... quite a lot. Some of it is useful! Most of it is... well, him.





	1. Matthew's Letter

I found… something. Okay, that sounded ominous, but I’m serious.

 

My name, if you don’t know, is Matthew Holt. I am about 20 to 21 years old by now if my make-shift calendar and clocks are to be believed.I am the aerospace and astromechanics engineer that was put onto the mission to Pluto’s moon, Kerberos, from the space organization that emerged from the ashes of NASA known as the Garrison. On this mission, roughly three months into our research, we were attacked, captured, and enslaved by the alien race known as the Galra. We found out about their hold on most of the known universe in our captivity, between the torture, minimal feedings and “preparations” we learned as much as we could.

 

Then I was separated from my crew mates. My father, the assigned scientist for our mission, was taken first. He was frailer than Shiro and myself, and older for obvious reasons, so from what we knew he was taken to a work camp. Next came Shiro. Last I ever saw of him was before the arena, which I was spared from thanks to him. Shiro was my closest friend for years, hell, we questioned if our relationship had gone beyond friendship at multiple points, especially before our capture. As far as I have been informed he has most likely been killed, falling victim to the arena in my place, and even if he isn’t lost, I mourn for him… even two years later.

 

Shiro spared me the arena life by slicing my leg, it wasn’t enough to scar or ruin my leg, but it was enough to keep be balanced between being able to fight and being sent to a camp. While in that balance, some things happened… I don’t remember details during that time, still, but whatever was to come next was halted thanks to a band of rebels breaking me out during one of their raids. Since then, I had grown stronger. Whatever the magic-wielding creatures had done to me that causes my memory to blank, it made my body able to handle more than it usually could. I used it to learn melee combat, choosing a staff as my favored weapon and modifying one to suit my needs as I deem fit.

 

That leaves me to explain this place, I guess. This is an abandoned bunker, void of detection but able to send messages and pick up on signals. Now, it is abandoned once more. I had a set up here, but that was taken with me and the team that is assisting me now. What I have left is for you, whoever you are, to learn what I have and make use of it. The Galra are too stupid to find this place, but some in the resistance know the code to find these coordinates, but if by some chance you are someone I know outside of the resistance… I’m sorry…

 

I guess I have to actually say what I have been trying to get to. During my time listening and surveillancing the Galra, I have discovered breaking points in their forces. From what I understand, the rebels haven’t reached these areas of the universe yet, so the battles happening there were unexplainable. That was, until there was word from the Galra about them. Something they continue to mention is the name “Voltron”, though that didn’t have much meaning to me it apparently struck a chord with a few of the older members of the resistance and told me that there were rumors of Voltron’s “return”. Turns out it’s a super weapon that was only used in a short time about 10,000 years ago but had been thought to be legend… I guess all the stories are true, in this case anyway.

 

Aside from Voltron, I have my curiosity about the “paladins” that control it. As an engineer, hearing about an all-powerful machine that, on it’s own, has turned the tide against the Galra after 10,000 years of conquering without fear? This is making me ecstatic. Of course, this isn’t the only thing I found. Yes, Voltron is important, but they’ve been handling themselves. What I found is far better and possibly the biggest key next to Voltron to finally putting an end to the empire.

 

Back on Earth, there was a very old movie series that was older than even my Nonno, in this series there was a weapon of mass destruction that the “empire” had made, (please don’t ask, I’m pretty sure there are humans who can see the future and this was them trying to warn us a hundred or so years in the past). This weapon had a single spot that triggered it to self destruct. Apparently the Galra aren’t smart enough to hide this “self-destruct button” or, you know, protect it heavily… okay they _do_ BUT that isn’t the point. The point is, we can exploit this! In one of the crates are blueprints. Find a way to make as many of these as you can and contact us using the instructions in that same crate.

 

This should work, I trust in my abilities as an engineer that it will, but since my knowledge is mostly Earth-based… that should tell you something. I have picked up on plenty with my time in space and working with the rebels, before I had to fake my death, but that doesn’t promise 100% success, especially with something like this.

 

[Beneath the letter bearing a summary of Matthew Holt’s life and instructions is a clutter of pages filled front and back with words in another language, one that humans would recognize as English. All of the pages are listed in the top right corner with a number, indicating their order.]

 

I was a kid when I was sent to Kerberos, believing that I was just going to end up going back home with two of my favorite people in the universe and reunite with my #1 favorite person, my little sister Katie. Katie asked me that I keep calling her Pidge, but I think for now I’ll continue calling her by her name. She should be in eighth grade by now, probably high school. I hope she managed to get into the Garrison like she wanted, it was her dream.

 

I miss her. I’ve missed my sister since I was first launched onto Kerberos. And I still miss her. Knowing her, she probably did something crazy and got herself into space too, just to find me. I wouldn’t be surprised. If she did, I hope she at least made friends. It can get lonely, being by yourself in space. I spent at least half a year in that bunker, after all. Maybe, if she is out here, and one of us finds the other, that I can join her and the friends she’s made. That would be nice.

 

She isn’t the only one I miss though. Katie is important to me, like a clone of myself in some ways, but I also miss Shiro, his brother, my dad, my mom. I miss them all. I heard rumors when I was still imprisoned that he had become The Champion, but I wasn’t sure, nor was I going to live on false hope. False hope is what gets people killed. Still, my heart aches that I never got to tell him a lot of things. I kissed him once, when he was asleep. I have a feeling he knew, but wanted to watch me suffer. He was always my friend, my best friend, and he always will be no matter what. Even if, some day, I find him again, alive, and can tell him everything.

 

I know this sentimental stuff is all on another paper and written in English, so no alien could properly read it, but it still feels a bit strange. I’ve been able to learn a few languages along the way too, from the “common” that most everyone uses in the universe now to a few others like Malfuverian, Colladias, Szeristen and also Gyrn. They have some funny sounding words, but English and Italian probably sound amusing to them, so it’s all fair. Sometimes I slip into Italian. I grew up in Italy until I was about 8, Katie was about 2, and then we moved to the English-speaking countries.

 

I wish I could have shown Katie the sights of Italy. The Colosseum Wall, The Fall of the Tower, they were all amazing and showed a history of the country. From what I understand, the only countries that have stayed the same from the earliest points of this century are those in Europe, North America and Japan. Somewhere along the way all of the countries around the “middle east” collapsed, the war that had been waging for a few decades ended with everyone that was fighting to die off and the only remnants of the citizens to be scattered in the other nations. Russia fell too, but I don’t know the details of that other than that most of the land to the east was taken by China, who themselves have given segments of their southern and eastern borders to Japan after they subdued Korea into one nation. I guess… humans are quite violent and greedy creatures…

 

Shiro came from Japan. Wait, that sounded weird. Shiro was born and raised in Japan. That’s better. I think he was raised in the Chinese colonies, but you would have to ask him. I know he met his brother there, he mentioned that Keith was half Chinese and half Korean, but honestly, I always felt like there was another part to his ethnicity that no one could really discern. From what I understand, Shiro’s family and Keith’s moved together to an area in North America that used to be known as Arizona, which is also where the Garrison’s primary training school is.

 

Names are still a thing that North America is particular about. Keith was young enough so the “system” forced his parents to give him a new name while Shiro kept his. Then came the incident with Keith’s dad, his mom having left a few years before then, and Shiro and his family came to be in charge of caring for Keith. That all happened shortly after I met Shiro for the first time, back in about 5th grade I think.

 

Back in 5th grade I was still learning English, but I wasn’t horrible with it. Dad had been fluent for years before we moved, which definitely helped, but all of my teachers believed me to be an idiot. It was painful. At least that was the year I met Shiro. Shiro had been living in North America for a longer time than I had, but he still held his accent since he had a late start in picking up English and we even had the same “learning English” class together, which, ultimately, wasn’t a very good class.

 

Throughout middle school Shiro and I grew ever closer and even grew to share the same goals. Well, the goal at the time being to get into the Garrison school so that we could work in space and stuff. When we actually got there I was 14 and Shiro was 15, though I joked that he was only 3 years old in actuality. We figured out what fields we wanted to go into as well, and from there we built ourselves up to be the pilot and engineer we are.

 

I am writing this letter out while waiting for my team mates to join me, but it feels a bit cathartic. Remembering all of these events, details I thought I had long forgotten… It’s nice to know that I hadn’t lost them. And Katie, Pidge, if you somehow managed to find this letter and make it to space, try to find me. If we work towards the same goal, then we are sure to cross paths. When we do, I want to hear your story. I want to know what my sister has achieved without my help. Just… reassure me that you didn’t tell mom. She would have been more betrayed if you had gone against her wishes than if you went behind her back. She probably thinks that space killed her husband and son, she doesn’t need to believe that it killed her daughter too, even if she would come to that conclusion too.

 

Then again… maybe Katie wouldn’t find this. She knows the code, sure, but there is always the chance that she didn’t get out here. Realistically speaking, that is, it would be impossible. I guess I just believe in the impossible, then. I mean, I was captured by reality’s equivalent of Star Wars’ empire except they aren’t pseudo-humans but instead purple humanoid cat/lizard aliens with their own seemingly immortal Darth Vader. All we’re missing is his son. Hell! Zarkon could even be considered reality’s _Fire Lord Ozai_! If Zarkon does have a son it would be far more entertaining if the “prince” did something like Zuko did. Avatar: The Last Airbender was probably the only thing from Nonno’s time that I actually liked.

  
Am I trying to avoid making myself burst into tears from the bitter loneliness I feel being the only person I know in space that is guaranteed to be alive right now? Obviously. Is it working? Not really. Do I want to hurl myself into the endless void of space every now and then? Absolutely! Because living alone in a bunker because a bounty hunter wants your ass, believing that the person you love most in the world is dead, being unsure if you could have saved your own kin from whatever they are going through and not being sure the fate of your sibling is _really damn hard on one’s conscious_. So, I wait. And suffer. I survive. I survive in hopes that others may live, not because I feel like I can not, but because I know, without answers, I can’t bring myself to live. If I die, then it is working for a greater cause.


	2. To Those I Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Messages Matt had written... did he believe he would die?

[Folded neatly to the side, as though they had been written out further in advance to the other notes, is a sheet of paper with short messages addressed to multiple people.]

 

To Mom:

 

I know I left you with Katie. I wish I could say that Dad and I are alright, but the truth isn’t that close. Dad’s whereabouts are unknown to me, but I have been trying to find him. I work everyday to fight against the Galra, hoping to stop them before they can conquer more and get to Earth. I love you, and I am sorry for everything we have put you through.

 

-

 

To Dad:

 

I wish I knew where you were. I wish I knew you were safe or at least alive so that I could save you. For now, I can only hope for the best. I will take this fight to the Galra, even if it means I fall.

 

-

 

To Keith:

 

I don’t know you too well, but you were still considered a friend to me. I wish your studies in the Garrison well, but for all I know you and Katie have come together and are now hunting me and Shiro down together. Good luck to you.

 

-

 

To Katie:

 

Hey Pidge, I want to give you this message myself, but being light years away from Earth definitely prevents that. I want to tell you how much I miss you. I love you so much and would kill for one of your hugs right about now. I hope you’ve been taking care of my glasses. I also hope you haven’t gotten into too much trouble without me. If you manage to get out here to space then do your best to find me before I find you. I know without being there though that you have done amazing things, so keep up the good work.

 

-

 

To Takashi:

 

This is the last letter I am writing. It’s also the hardest to write. Ever since we were young I’ve had this… feeling. A feeling that you and I were meant for more than just exploring the solar system. Fate decided to play with us based on that feeling, apparently. I don’t know what has happened to you since we last met, I don’t even know if you’re alive, but if you are, then I am going to write everything out here… in case I am not. You are the most important piece to my heart. Yes, I know that sounds cheesy, but hear me out. I think I realized it when we started at the Garrison. We shared a room together, we shared most of our classes together all four years, and we even went home together a lot of times. I have always treasured those memories, and I always will. Your smile brightens my day, and even the memory of it is enough to raise my spirits on most days. Knowing that you may be dead… it’s painful and causes my will to shatter. I lock myself away in these moments. There are so many things I have wanted to tell you, to show you. I have wanted to tell you the three words that everyone wishes to hear from the one they care most about, but you aren’t here with me. I can’t even bring myself to mutter them out loud. If we meet again, whether in this life or the next, I want to tell you those words. I want to spill my feelings to you in hopes that you feel the same. When we meet again. I want the war to be over. I want to be able to hide away on a peaceful planet. I don’t want to go back to living on Earth. Earth seems like such a boring idea now, but exploring the universe freely sounds too exhausting right now. One day, when the Galra are defeated, we can hide away somewhere and rest. Somewhere where we can sleep for days and never be bothered. Where we can sit and laugh and enjoy the company of each other and friends. And then, when we’re ready to venture forward again, we can wander the universe. Those are my wishes, Takashi Shirogane, because my feelings for you stretch to the moon and the stars beyond, endless in the possibilities for the future.

 

With love, from Matthew


End file.
